The Age of Premium Bonds

People often ask why a lot of winners appear to be from recently bought bonds. I sometimes suspect that they begrudge people who have just bought bonds their win! However these people have the same chance in any monthly draw as everyone else once their bond is eligible. Obviously over time the longer you have your bonds in the more chance you have of winning.

The table below shows the proportion of winners by decade of when they bought their winning bond of all the big winners from January 2004 through to March 2012 for prizes of £5,000 and above.

Wins by Decade
	Total
1950	0.07%
1960	0.28%
1970	0.65%
1980	1.48%
1990	18.10%
2000	77.10%
2010	2.31%
Grand Total	100.00%

As you can see the vast majority of bonds were bought in the 2000's. 

Data coverage is not complete and all mistakes in analysis are mine!